A Tale of Two Slayers
by Magpul the Unholy
Summary: Goblin Slayer is no stranger to bloodshed. But what happens when another Slayer comes into the world?
1. Discovery

"This is the place."

Goblin Slayer stood at the entrance of the cave, Priestess standing just behind him. Even though they had cleared out many goblin caves during their time together, she could never get over the fear she felt when they came across a new one.

In the back of her mind, she was always afraid that, somehow, things would go just as bad as that first job she took as an adventurer…

"Priestess?"

She snapped out of her introspection to see Goblin Slayer already walking into the cave, holding a torch.

"S- Sorry!"

She hurried to fall in step beside him, and the two entered into the darkness, Goblin Slayer's torch being the only thing keeping them from being totally blind.

Like every other time they cleared a cave, they started by hugging the walls, making sure to check out any and all branching paths that they came across. And just like there always was, there was a lone goblin not too far from the cavern entrance, acting as a forward scout in the event that adventurers like themselves came in.

However, unlike every other time, this goblin was already dead. In fact, it appeared that only his lower half was left, with what was left of his upper body coating the rocks behind him.

Both Priestess and Goblin Slayer paused at this, being disgusted and curious, respectively. "Strange," Slayer noted as he crouched down to feel the ground in front of the goblin corpse, "there's no signs of an explosion here."

Suddenly, he noticed something glimmering on the ground a few feet away, and he walked over to see what it was.

It was actually two identical objects, and he bent down to pick them both up. They looked similar to small vials, with the bottom being made of some sort of yellow-hued metal, while the rest was a bright red, although Slayer couldn't place what exactly the material was. Both of the objects looked as if they were exploded from the opposite end of the metal, and he confirmed that they smelled similar to black powder. Still, it was slightly off…

While he was doing this, Priestess forced herself to inspect the goblin's remains. She had to completely get over violence like this at some point, so what better way than to poke a dead goblin while they had a moment of peace?

As she did so, she noticed something peculiar. "Goblin Slayer, sir, the body is still a bit warm!"

"So are these," he added, deciding to pocket the red items to inspect more thoroughly later, and then pulling out a knife and walking towards the goblin corpse.

Priestess always hated this part.

Once their scents were properly masked, they traveled deeper into the cave, eventually coming across one of the goblins' typical warning posts. Once again, they only came across dead goblins in the surrounding area, in various states of dismemberment. Whoever got there before them, they clearly had power on their side.

Slayer noticed more of those discarded objects scattered around, including some that were nothing but that yellow metal, and somewhat thinner. They still smelled reminiscent of black powder, but he didn't bother getting all of them. Not enough room in his pockets.

He did notice something new, though. The cave walls were peppered with bits of metal that glittered in the torch light, typically right next to where a goblin corpse was laying.

Perhaps most ominously, Priestess noticed that Goblin Slayer was not keeping track of the dead goblins they ran into. As she almost tripped on a severed hand, she realized that it was because he couldn't keep count among the devastation.

The tension was thicker than usual when they went into goblin caves. Just who was it that beat them here?

As they traveled on, the carnage continued, with goblin blood and body parts littering the walls and floor around them. There were even a couple hobgoblin corpses in the mix, and Priestess couldn't help but gape at the fact that they were in just as bad a state as their smaller brethren.

The violent aftermath reached its peak when they reached the main chamber, which was almost completely caked in goblin blood. As was expected, there were also a few human bodies in the room. The fact that they were still intact meant that they were probably dead by the hands of the goblins before they were descended upon by whatever fury this was.

Goblin Slayer took note of a dead shaman goblins near the back of the room, and he made a beeline for the throne, before smashing it and opening up the hidden room behind it.

Unexpectedly, this room was actually empty. No goblin children, dead or otherwise, nor were there any spoils the goblins had collected from dead adventurers.

Slayer grunted in annoyance. "There were survivors. Whoever did this, they weren't thorough enough."

Priestess was torn between being glad that she wouldn't have to witness more child murder (even if they were still goblins), and worried about what this would mean for future expeditions. "W- What should we do?"

Goblin Slayer stood straight up, returning to the center of the room. "We should report this to the guild. No matter how strong these people were, leaving survivors will only make things harder for us and other adventurers down the line."

Just as they were about to leave, they heard movement from one of the side caves, and both of them quickly faced the source, Slayer adopting a combat stance with his sword while Priestess used him as cover.

However, instead of a goblin straggler, it was a woman, pulling herself along the ground towards them.

Priestess was on her first. "Oh, goodness! Are you okay, you're-"

"She can't hear us," Goblin Slayer said, pointing to the trickle of dried blood flowing from both her ears.

Priestess blinked, then brought up her staff. One incantation later, she cast Heal, causing the girl to blink as her hearing was restored to her.

Her other injuries were also healed, and she broke down crying as she slowly tried to pull herself up. "T- Thank-"

"It's okay, you're safe now," Priestess said, doing her best to calm her down. Goblin Slayer just idly stood by as this happened. He was never good with helping goblin prisoners, beyond getting them out of the cave.

Once it was clear that the girl was still lucid enough to answer questions, he kneeled down to eye level with her. "Did you see who did this?"

The girl shivered heavily, either from her nudity or from the question. "It- It was awful. There was… explosions. A lot of them. A- and then, something started killing goblins, and a- at some point, the explosions stopped, but-"

She took a moment to compose herself. "It wasn't human."

Goblin Slayer looked at her curiously. "It? There was only one of them?"

The girl nodded. "I didn't get a good look, but it was… about your size, and… green…" She shook her head. "I hid during the fight, and the goblins seemed to forget about me. I passed out, and when I woke up, everyone w- was gone…"

She started crying again, and almost fell back on the ground before Slayer and Priestess caught her. "Easy," Priestess said, "we'll get you out of here."

While they supported the girl as she limped alongside them, Goblin Slayer found his mind wandering.

A single being, capable of amazing destructive power, who evidently shared his own hatred for goblins, but without the actual knowledge to properly eradicate them.

This would prove troublesome.

* * *

He did a quick inventory check as he walked through the forest.

Ammo was still holding out, but he had to be a bit more sparing with it in the future; didn't seem like there was much to go around, wherever he was.

His suit was able to map out the surrounding area somewhat, but it wasn't much help in figuring out what that area was.

He absentmindedly wiped some blood off his fist. Little green bastards were a cakewalk compared to what he usually fought, but he had to give them credit, it was a long, _long_ time since he felt genuine hatred to something that wasn't related to demons.

So, that was his game plan for the time being. Try to find more caves, and wipe out any of those things he could find.

Eventually, he'd probably find a way back to Hell. He wasn't quite done there, after all.


	2. Encounter

After ensuring that the girl was in safe hands, Goblin Slayer and Priestess made a beeline for the adventurer's guild. When they entered the building, Guild Girl looked a bit shocked.

"Oh, that was fast," she said. "Already cleared out those goblins?"

"Did any other adventurer take this quest?" Goblin Slayer asked, ignoring her question.

Guild Girl was confused. "No? You were the first ones to take it, and no one else asked about it since then. Why?"

"Someone beat us there," Goblin Slayer said simply. "All of the goblins were already dead or ran away."

Priestess chose this point to step alongside her companion. "W- We found a girl, and she said it was a single person… and there were a lot of explosions."

Guild Girl put a hand to her chin in thought. "I don't think I've ever seen any explosion magic users around here, lately. Perhaps they simply stockpiled their own stash of bombs for this moment?"

"They didn't use bombs," Slayer said, putting the objects he picked up onto the table. "However they operated, they used these."

Guild Girl picked up one of the cylinders, inspecting it closely. "It smells kinda like black powder… you sure these weren't bombs?"

"They're too intact for that," he countered. "I think it was some sort of projectile. There were bits of metal lodged in the walls around where we found these."

Guild Girl shrugged. "If you say so. Is it alright if I hold onto these, then? I might be able to ask someone with more expertise."

"Go ahead."

With that, Goblin Slayer turned to walk out of the building.

"W-wait, Goblin Slayer, sir!" Priestess said. "Aren't you going to take another quest?"

"There's someone else going around killing goblins, but they're doing it sloppily," he said. "If we hurry, we can try to track them down."

"W- What about the others?" she asked. "Shouldn't we wait for them?"

"They're most likely still busy with their own quest," Slayer said. "We can always regroup with them later if we need to."

Priestess and Guild Girl shared a brief look, before the former nodded and followed along.

* * *

Thankfully, the cave they went to wasn't that far from the guild, and Goblin Slayer was quickly able to find a secondary exit to the caves. There, they found the telltale signs of someone walking through the foliage, along with a few scattered drops of blood.

"Their armor was heavy," Goblin Slayer observed. "If we hurry, it should be easy to catch up to them."

"D- Do you think they're hurt?" Priestess asked, ducking under some branches as Slayer went straight through the underbrush to follow the trail.

"It's possible. But it doesn't look like they stopped for a breather at any point."

He was right; the trail they were following consisted of nothing but footprints in the grass or dirt, and displaced or broken plantlife.

"Do you think they were running?" Priestess suddenly asked. "Maybe, trying to… catch the surviving goblins?"

Goblin Slayer did not answer.

Eventually, the trail led them to a road. This meant that they lost the trail of this other goblin hunter among the many, many other tracks scattered all over the dirt. The lack of any displaced bushes along the sides of the road meant that they now had two potential paths to follow, with no indication which one was correct.

"Damn…" Slayer turned to Priestess. "You have that map, right?"

"Y- yes!" She fumbled a bit pulling it out, but quickly handed it to him. He studied it closely, looking up once in a while to make sure they weren't blocking the road for other travelers.

After some time, he folded the map back up. "There should be another goblin cave to the northeast. If we head there, we might be able to intercept them."

Priestess nodded as she took a sip from one of their canteens. "Okay!"

The two followed the road, curious to see who, or what, would await them.

* * *

Another cave, the makeshift sign outside meant to dissuade anyone from venturing in, lest they meet an untimely end.

The darkness within the cave no doubt helped with this, but his helmet provided enough low-light vision to eliminate any potential advantage they'd have.

Of course, even without his suit, he could think of a few other ways to see in the dark, idly carrying his shotgun. Might makes light, after all.

Still, this time, he knew a bit more about how these creatures operated, so he knew that using his guns this early would instantly put the whole nest on alert. That, plus ammo conservation, meant that he had to fall back on more… satisfying methods.

Just like before, once he was fully enveloped in darkness and could no longer see the outside light, there was a skittering behind him, followed by an inhuman cry as one of the green creatures tried to get the jump on him, dagger held high.

The moment it was in range, he whirled around and caught the beat in mid air, cutting its cry short as its throat was suddenly being crushed.

For a split second before it died, the creature's vision was filled with nothing but the transparent helmet visor of this intruder. There, it saw nothing but cold hatred within his eyes, the eyes of one whose rage was bottomless and burned white hot.

The next moment, the beast was being sent into the wall, until his fist reduced its head to nothing but a dark stain.

He didn't even wait for the body to hit the ground before he continued walking forward, heading deeper into their territory.

One down, who knows how many to go.

* * *

Following the map, Goblin Slayer and Priestess arrived at the entrance to another goblin cave, some distance from the road they had traveled.

Sure enough, they managed to spot those same footsteps they were tracking, heading straight into the cave.

Priestess gasped. "Two goblin caves in one day?"

"These tracks are fresh," Slayer concluded before lighting a torch. "If we're quick, we might be able to catch them inside."

The two entered the darkness, slightly faster than they normally would. As expected, it wasn't long before they saw their first casualty, in the form of a headless goblin slumped against a wall, its grey matter splattered behind it.

Curiously, Slayer noted that there weren't any more of those strange discarded objects nearby. Perhaps they only had a limited supply?

Suddenly, it sounded as if a massive explosion had gone off, echoing from deep within the cave. Priestess couldn't help but yelp at the sound, while Goblin Slayer tensed up, and drew his shield.

The two started moving towards the center of the goblin nest. The explosion went off again not too long after, sounding much closer- and much louder.

As they both winced from the volume, Goblin Slayer started taking some spare cloth from one of his pockets, and ripping it into smaller pieces, before giving them to Priestess. "Here, plug your ears."

She understood why, and she did as he said, muffling her own hearing. However, she noticed that he hadn't done it to himself. "Aren't you-"

"Don't have enough," he cut her off, taking care to speak louder than normal. "My helmet helps a little on its own, anyway. I'll tell you if I need you to cast Heal on me."

Priestess hesitated slightly, then nodded.

By now, they started passing more goblin corpses, including a few that could only pitifully crawl on the ground while bleeding from where their legs used to be.

When Goblin Slayer simply ignored them, he preemptively answered Priestess's question. "They're already going to die. Let them suffer."

As they closed in towards the center of the cave, they started to hear the telltale sounds of agitated goblins, along with an unidentified pair of armored footsteps.

Slayer paused upon hearing the steps. Despite how heavy they sounded, they were coming far too quickly for someone carrying that weight.

Suddenly, a pair of goblins emerged from the darkness in front of them, and went wide eyed as they came face to face with Goblin Slayer. He didn't give them time to think, as he threw a knife at one's throat before charging the other with his shield, knocking it down before bringing down the edge onto its skull, caving it in.

"Two," he muttered to himself out of habit as he stood up, shield still raised. "They were running away."

Priestess gulped.

Just before Slayer could keep pressing forward, there was the sound of some sort of terrible, high pitched roaring, which quickly lowered in pitch as the screams of a particularly unlucky goblin got louder, before fading away into a gurgling mess.

This gave Slayer pause. "That's new…"

The roaring stopped after a moment, and Goblin Slayer started jogging forward again, Priestess keeping close to his heels.

They finally made it to the main chamber, and what awaited them was chaos.

Goblin bodies scattered all over the place, almost all of which were dismembered or disemboweled in some way, their blood still pooling together.

A lone hobgoblin, uselessly trying to nurse the massive hole in its gut as it leaned against the wall, before finally bleeding out.

An ever-dwindling horde of goblins, clearly torn between attacking and running away from their target.

And finally, the one they had been searching for.

Goblin Slayer and Priestess couldn't help but stare at the fully armored figure in the middle of the goblin horde, effortlessly crushing any goblins that got near with nothing but its bare hands. On top of that, even from this distance they could see that his armor was like nothing they had ever seen before, its dull green coloring contrasting with the brighter green of the goblins' skin.

As the fight moved further and further away, Slayer suddenly noticed that the goblins had finally decided on a plan, and started trying to swarm the warrior all at once. It was not an uncommon desperation tactic for them to pull, and even the most skilled fighters could fall prey to it if they find themselves in the middle of a horde.

What he didn't expect, however, was when the warrior suddenly started wielding a large, green tube of some kind. It was as if, in the split second he couldn't be seen, it simply materialized in his grasp.

He pulled a trigger on the device while aiming it at the biggest clump of goblins, and the cave lit up as it spat out fire.

Fire, and a projectile.

Goblin Slayer barely had time to recognize what had happened before the projectile hit a goblin and exploded, forcing both Slayer and Priestess to shield their eyes from the sudden increase in light. While they weren't looking, there was the sound of several rocks falling, and when they looked back, all that was left was a scattering of blood and goblin bits, and a large pile of collapsed rocks, which now blocked off the passage that the warrior had been running into as he fought.

They could still make out the sounds of combat from the other side, no doubt between the warrior and whatever goblins survived on his side of the cave-in. Suddenly, the sounds of fighting were replaced with the sound of footsteps rapidly going away. It seemed that what goblins were left decided to run, and he was in pursuit.

Goblin Slayer hurried over to the rocks, in the small hope that he could dig himself a hole big enough to slip through, but had to give up that plan when he saw that a couple of goblins survived on his side, and decided to target him instead.

Once he finished digging his knife out of the second goblin's skull, he turned to see Priestess already hard at work on a few girls that were being held captive. It seemed that they, too, had their eardrums burst during the fight, but unfortunately she didn't have enough uses of Heal left to use on all of them.

While she tried to figure that situation out, Goblin Slayer decided to finish the job for this particular cave, and went straight to the hidden room behind the throne.

Unlike the last cave, this one wasn't empty.

Priestess decided to hold off on using her Heal incantation, instead working to stabilize and calm the girls on her own. Even after all they went through, she didn't want them to hear the sounds of dying goblin children not too far away.

Once the cries of juvenile goblins finally stopped, Priestess quickly went through the incantation twice, using them on the two girls that seemed the least broken of the group.

Unfortunately, they couldn't provide any more answers for what happened than the last girl they saved, so she instead spent her time consoling them, letting them know that they were safe now, even as she couldn't help but cry with them.

Goblin Slayer discarded his knife, too bloody to use in a fight now. He couldn't hear any combat sounds from the other side of the collapsed rocks.

He sighed. They might be able to catch back up with him if they left immediately, but he knew they couldn't just leave these girls here.

Whoever that was, they clearly knew how to fight. In fact, from what little he saw, the drive he saw behind that brutality almost mirrored his own…

* * *

He got up, having finally caught the last creature that tried to make a run for it. Thankfully, it didn't seem like they expected him to move as fast as he did.

He looked back at the cave he just left. He spotted those other two people just before he accidentally brought the roof down, and he considered trying to go back to talk with them, but ultimately decided against it.

As vile as these creatures were, and as satisfying as it would be to rip and tear every last one to pieces, he knew that it was comparatively a much smaller threat, and that it was better to be uninvolved in a world beyond eviscerating any and all demons that made their way into it.

Ultimately, he needed to find a portal of some kind, either to Hell or directly to Mars. Then he could continue the crusade he had been on for eons, as well as reclaim what was rightfully his from that arrogant robot.


End file.
